REVIEW: Talented youngsters bring 'toil and trouble' to theatre

The Horncastle Theatre Company’s Young Stagers are hard at work putting the finishing touches to their production of Macbeth, which opens at the Lion Theatre this week.

This innovative adaptation of “The Scottish Play” from BBC Teach is specially written for young performers by Neil Richards, and includes an exciting mix of sword-weilding battle scenes and magic, combined with musical numbers ranging from haunting Scottish laments, to rap, to rousing and catchy anthems.This incredibly talented group of seven to 12 year olds do a wonderful job of bringing this exciting version of The Scottish Play to life, with plenty of energy right from the outset where we first see the youngsters on stage divided into two armies – the Scottish and the Norwegian – doing battle with some very well choreographed stage combat.

Bringing such well-known characters including Macbeth, his scheming wife Lady Macbeth, loyal Banquo, and vengeful Macduff may have been daunting, but all of the leads give very strong performances and tackle the songs with confidence. They should be very proud of themselves.

The young actors do a terrific job with their interpretation of such a difficult play, which thanks to the adapted script is much easier to follow and will suit even non-Shakespeare fans.

Using a minimal set with a screen behind to show changing scenes enabled the cast to move seamlessly between scenes, and director Sheena Liversidge has done a fantastic job getting the best out of these talented youngsters. Macbeth by the Young Stagers opens tomorrow (Thursday May 16) and runs until Saturday. Tickets are priced at £8 or £7 for concessions, and can be booked via the theatre website at www.horncastletheatre.co.uk/book-tickets